Take shampoo and conditioner into the shower? Not me, I just take my laptop and headphones and go. In the basement at work there are two small shower rooms and recently I’ve been using them to do my relaxation therapies. The slatted wooden bench that runs along one wall is a little uncomfortable and the smell of Imperial Leather slightly overpowering, but once I’ve locked the door, turned off the light and put my headphones on, I’m perfectly cocooned from the outside world. It’s important to be in a place where I know I won’t be disturbed. The background noise of a colleague repeatedly ramming the paper tray into the photocopier’s innards, whilst swearing like a Tourettic sailor, is not going to help me achieve a state of deep relaxation. It’s hard to imagine myself floating and swaying at the best of times, without being interrupted by phones going off and members of the management team screaming for more soy chai latte. The shower room gives me all the peace and quiet I need. Of course I could just wait until I get home, but it’s becoming clear that to do the therapies properly takes time. You have to commit yourself to it. And with everything else going on in your life, it’s not always easy to find an hour or so to spend flat on your back in a dreamlike state. So now every day at work, usually around lunchtime, I try to sneak off to the shower rooms for half an hour. It’s something I look forward to. A little moment of calm in the middle of the day. Like a coffee break, but instead of loading up on caffeine, I pour relaxing, positive thoughts into my ears. One thing does slightly concern me though. The other day as I was coming out of the shower room with a beatific, post-hypnotic smile on my face, I bumped into one of the girls from the office. She didn’t give me a chance to explain what I was doing in a locked, darkened room with a laptop, because as soon as she spotted it tucked under my arm, she gave me a very queer look and hurried for the stairs. In future, to avoid people jumping to the wrong conclusion, I wonder if I should roll my laptop up inside a towel?
The shower room at work - an ideal place to cleanse the mind.
